Sharing Your Faith at Work and in the World

In Mark 16:15, Jesus commands His disciples and us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. So far for this month, we’ve talked about how we can share the gospel with our families and our friends, and today we’re taking it even further into the workplace and into the world; how can we share our faith with our coworkers and the people we interact with in everyday life?

Sharing our faith at work can be a tough thing for many of us because we live in an age when religion and politics are the two things that we are supposed to leave at home. When we’re at work, our job is to do our job. Many Christians feel like this expectation is a closed door and pretty much cuts off any conversation about Jesus at work before it even starts. Instead of looking at this cultural hurdle as a problem, I think we can instead look at it as an opportunity. When you are at work, your job is to do the work you were hired to do, right? Colossians 3:23-24 say,

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

Your first witness in the workplace is probably not going to be sitting everyone down and sharing your faith in the lunchroom or over the intercoms, but through the quality of work that you are doing. A lazy work ethic, a bad attitude, a reputation for backbiting or insubordination are all really great ways to make a bad name for yourself as an employee. They are also a horrible representation of Christ to the world as they are all identified as sinful behaviors. Proverbs 6:6-11 teaches us how hard work is part of biblical wisdom and Proverbs 21:25 says that slothfulness kills us. Diligent, hard work is one thing, but having integrity in our work is a witness to both our coworkers and our bosses that we are not just working out of ambition or desire for more money, but that there is something more important driving us. As Christians we should work in a manner that encourages those around us to ask the question, “What makes you different?”

Another way to be a witness in the workplace is to work towards the benefit of others. Everyone around us seems to be hurrying towards self-advancement and the job field today is highly competitive with people you thought you could trust before now turning their backs on you, taking credit for your work or talking badly about you to your supervisors. Imagine how that person would react, then, if you went out of your way to help them with a project and then gave them full credit for the work on the back end? In Luke 6:27-30, Jesus teaches,

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.”

Does this teaching mean that you need to just be a walking doormat at work and let everyone else take advantage of you? Not exactly. Jesus, Himself, was not just he unknowing recipient of the religious leaders abuse and wrongfully executed without being able to defend Himself. In John 10:17 and 18, Jesus clearly says,

“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Jesus’ response to His mistreatment was not to defend Himself, but instead told His accusers that He was there willingly. They didn’t have power over Him to take His life, but He was choosing to lay it down for the payment of the sins of the world. In the same way, if we reject the position of hapless victim of the sinful choices of those who would lie about us or take credit for what we have done at work, but instead tell them that regardless of their sinful choices, you trust God to provide for you, you are then able to open their eyes to their own sin.

Proverbs 25:21-22 says,

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.

Even when people are being sinful towards us, even when our bosses are being unfair, how we respond to the world being the world gives us the opportunity to show them that our kingdom is different, that our treasure is not a worldly treasure and our hope is not a temporary hope. Now, this doesn’t mean that we are always going to receive immediate or financial blessings from our jobs as a result of us walking out our faith in the workplace. In the world at large, sometimes we are recognized for our efforts and sometimes we are reviled. Looking at the disciples, sometimes they were set free from their trials and sometimes they were martyred. We don’t know how God is going to use our obedience, but we do know that our reward is in Eternity and that we are laying up treasures in Heaven that won’t rust or rot or spoil.

On another note, notice that these examples we’ve given were not clever ways on how to verbally share the gospel at work or plant gospel tracks in the breakroom or on elevators. These examples don’t replace the verbal proclamation of the gospel, but they could help to open the doors for those gospel conversations with the people around you. When they see that your beliefs aren’t merely ideas that you agree with but actual foundations for how you live out your life, it creates the opportunity for them to compare what you are living for against what they are. It might not even be the selfish coworker or the unfair boss that recognizes it, but maybe another coworker or someone else around who sees the light you are bringing to the darkness of the workplace.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. - Matt. 5:14-16